Star junior forward Jeff Green is often judged on his points per game, but with just over three minutes left against the Pittsburgh Panthers and the outcome still in doubt, Green proved his worth beyond the scoreboard.
Just in-bounds at half-court, he fought off three defenders to throw a seemingly impossible outlet pass to streaking sophomore guard Jesse Sapp for an easy lay-up. The play sent Verizon Center into a frenzy, sealing Saturday’s 61-53 victory for Georgetown and putting the Hoyas alone atop the Big East Conference.
“I saw three of our guys running out of the corner of my eye,” Green said of the play. “I just let it fly and it landed in Jesse’s hands.”
Marked from the beginning of the year as the game likely to decide the Big East regular season title, the battle for conference supremacy did not disappoint. The high energy was clear from the moment the teams emerged from the tunnel to warm-up, but for the Hoyas, the added excitement may have done more harm than good.
“We had a lot of energy at the beginning of the game,” Green said. “But it was coming out in the wrong way.”
The Hoyas turned the ball over several times in the first few minutes of play, and found themselves down early. Five minutes into the game, Georgetown met an unexpected challenge in seven-foot senior Aaron Gray. The pre-season Big East Player of the Year was expected to sit out the game with a sprained ankle.
“We didn’t expect Aaron today,” Pittsburgh Coach Jaime Dixon said after the game. “He felt better this morning and ended up giving me far more than I could’ve expected.”
Gray had an immediate impact, especially on the offensive glass, as Pitt pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and attempted 13 more shots than the Hoyas in the first half. Georgetown played strong defense and contested every Pitt shot, holding the Panthers to 32 percent shooting in the first half and a 29-26 halftime lead.
“We were antsy and very anxious at the start of the game,” Coach John Thompson III said. “Our main focus in the locker-room at halftime was calming down.”
The Hoyas did just that, coming out in the second-half looking poised and relaxed.
Junior center Roy Hibbert, who had a quiet first-half due to early foul trouble, was immediately active in the second, challenging his seven-foot counterpart on the first play with a strong move to the basket for two. After forcing a turnover on the subsequent Pitt possession, Georgetown again attacked Gray through Hibbert for two points. The battle of Big East big men continued throughout the game, and it was Hibbert who came out on top with 12 points, five rebounds and four blocks.
“It was a great battle,” Hibbert said of playing against Gray. “I can’t wait to play against him again, he’s a great player.”
Hibbert’s enthusiasm was contagious, and the Hoyas again held Pitt to an abysmal 33 percent from the field.
“We took that energy we had in the first half and converted it to defensive intensity in the second,” Green said of the effort.
Pittsburgh continued to attack the offensive glass, pulling down 22 offensive rebounds to Georgetown’s eight. With this huge rebounding gap, Pittsburgh attempted 20 more shots in the game than the Hoyas.
“It’s very rare that you lose a game when you have 20 more attempts and less turnovers then the other team,” Dixon said. “It doesn’t happen often, but it happened tonight.”
The foul line was the Hoyas’ saving grace. Junior guard Jonathan Wallace, who led Georgetown with 17 points, was eight for eight from the line and the team as a whole made 22 of 29 from the charity stripe.
“You just can’t let the other team get to the foul line 29 times,” Dixon said. “That’s the statistic that really sticks out for me.”
Georgetown is 12-2 in conference play and alone in first place. Under the strict guidance of Thompson, the Hoyas are already focusing on their trip to the Carrier Dome on Monday to play Syracuse (20-8, 9-5 BE), but with the longest conference winning streak in Georgetown history just a game a way and with a top-ten national ranking imminent, even the ever-humble Thompson is pleased.
“Today was a very good win against a very good team,” he said. “You just can’t be unhappy about the position we are in. Even I can’t.”
